Is this a good bike to convert to an ebike?

[tidelipop]

If thinking of building myself another bike. In my last build, i picked a MAC hub motor on the rear wheel, but this time I want a DH/FR-bike with a central motor.
Would the bike below be a good candidate? How hard is it to fit a central motor on that one with a freewheel to the pedals? Which motor, controller and freewheel do you recommend?
http://www.cykelcenter.com/mongoose-bootr-apprentice-2011-p-475.aspx

 

[cal3thousand]

If thinking of building myself another bike. In my last build, i picked a MAC hub motor on the rear wheel, but this time I want a DH/FR-bike with a central motor.
Would the bike below be a good candidate? How hard is it to fit a central motor on that one with a freewheel to the pedals? Which motor, controller and freewheel do you recommend?
http://www.cykelcenter.com/mongoose-bootr-apprentice-2011-p-475.aspx

That's a bit expensive for a Mongoose... but maybe this one is better than regular ones.

My take: the triangle is a bit small. Since you have the money to buy a new frame, consider one that has a larger triangle to put the batteries.

Your motor will be underneath?

 

[dogman dan]

I don't know enough about high end bike components to say if that particular deal is a good one or not.

It's unbelievable how much you can spend on just a fork if you have the cash.

But you are on the right track for the type of bike to make into a nice chain drive dirt ride. Mongoose does make some sweet bikes, they are not like the walmart mongooses that sell for under $300 USD.

How much you spend depends on your wallet mostly. Pretty darn good performance is found on the under $2000 usd bikes. But every time I upgrade a shock fork, I'm amazed how nice the new one is. At present, I'm still on the lowest rung of the price ladder. My best shock is a marzzochi bomber. Better than a rock shocks judy. I really like the air tunable stuff compared to the cheaper spring and oil shocks.

Anyway, look for some decent shocks on the bike, and burly looking frame components. Avoid frames that are focused on light weight, and look for frames that focus on strong.

 

[tidelipop]

Expensive, I thought it was cheap! The price is in Swedish crowns, not USD. So if I convert that price into USD it would be about $1524.
Good point about the batteries, I have to think about where to put them. It would be good to put them low, so in front of the motor would be one option, but I could also put one pack on each side of the frame, near the rear shock absorber.
From what I've read, these Mongoose bikes are pretty good, but this is the cheapest of the Boot'r line. Whar central motor do you recommend? I want one that's strong and pretty fast. Maybe one that can handle about 5000W without a problem.

 

[dogman dan]

$1500 usd suggested retail price does get you into a bike with tolerably good construction in most cases. Say mongoose, and most of us in the USA immediately think of the $150 usd model in the Walmart. Since I don't know the exchange rate, I thought you might have been looking at a $3,000-5,000 usd bike.

I don't know a thing about non hub motors. I'm just the hubmotor guy here. GNG kits are popular, but they are far from being a 5000w setup. Nobody I know of sells a non hub kit that powerful. But I don't read the non hub section much so I don't know much.

I think though, that bike chains and gears are designed for one human power. You want 6-7 horsepower. The bike components simply can't handle that. I don't know myself what wattage they typically can handle, but I'd think 2000w should still work. That's enough watts to go fast in a high gear, or wheelie in a low one.

So you need to look at second sprockets on the wheel that drive the wheel with larger chain for big horsepower. This puts you in one gear, unable to shift, so that doesn't work much different than hubmotors, except you get to choose the gear this time.

Look at stuff others have built, Like Live for Physics, Thud, or Paul D, and many others, for racing. They have built the monster bike you crave.

 

[tidelipop]

Didn't think of that, maybe 5000w is a little overkill. My current bike uses a MAC 10T I think it was and it's rated as 500w or 1000w, but it can peek at about 2000w without any problem at all. Maybe that kind of power would be enough this time also, since I can then use the gear shifting to make it stronger or faster, whatever I want. But can this bikes normal chain and gears tolerate 2000w? I'll checkout other central motor builds here on this forum. Thanks for the info.